Pub Date : 2007-04-01DOI: 10.1179/175035207X163370
N. Tyler
{"title":"Trevithick's Circle","authors":"N. Tyler","doi":"10.1179/175035207X163370","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1179/175035207X163370","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":232627,"journal":{"name":"Transactions of the Newcomen Society","volume":"2014 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2007-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130691344","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2007-04-01DOI: 10.1179/175035207X163334
N. A. Smith
The truth is that progress can be rapid when you are filling a vacuum; and a vacuum is a fairly good description of our present technical knowledge of Roman hydraulics. The scholars feel an urgent, even desperate, need for an encyclopaedia of Roman hydraulic technology and engineering. No such work, ancient or modern, exists, but the need is shown by their readiness to fall upon anything resembling one and treating it as if it were.2
{"title":"The Hydraulics of Ancient Pipes and Pipelines","authors":"N. A. Smith","doi":"10.1179/175035207X163334","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1179/175035207X163334","url":null,"abstract":"The truth is that progress can be rapid when you are filling a vacuum; and a vacuum is a fairly good description of our present technical knowledge of Roman hydraulics. The scholars feel an urgent, even desperate, need for an encyclopaedia of Roman hydraulic technology and engineering. No such work, ancient or modern, exists, but the need is shown by their readiness to fall upon anything resembling one and treating it as if it were.2","PeriodicalId":232627,"journal":{"name":"Transactions of the Newcomen Society","volume":"46 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2007-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123607875","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2006-08-01DOI: 10.1179/037201806X119840
C. Richardson
In the middle of the eighteenth century James Brindley’s natural affinity to all things mechanical resulted in a successful business as a millwright and later national fame as a canal engineer, but he was also an early advocate of the potential benefits of steam power. Along with other pioneers in the field — with the exception of Watt — he did not bring a scientific approach to the subject of heat, instead he applied his own, possibly idiosyncratic, methodology to commissions awarded by local colliery owners in the midlands. In turn others, with commercial interests in deep mine pumping, came to inspect Brindley’s installations and garner ideas, although cognisant of the patent protecting what they saw. In a fiercely competitive age a great deal of effort was invested in discovering the advances of others. However, his careers in mills, steam, and canals were not mutually exclusive and he continued to have commercial interests in all three spheres.
{"title":"James Brindley (1716–72) — His Simultaneous Commercial Development of Mills, Steam Power and Canals","authors":"C. Richardson","doi":"10.1179/037201806X119840","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1179/037201806X119840","url":null,"abstract":"In the middle of the eighteenth century James Brindley’s natural affinity to all things mechanical resulted in a successful business as a millwright and later national fame as a canal engineer, but he was also an early advocate of the potential benefits of steam power. Along with other pioneers in the field — with the exception of Watt — he did not bring a scientific approach to the subject of heat, instead he applied his own, possibly idiosyncratic, methodology to commissions awarded by local colliery owners in the midlands. In turn others, with commercial interests in deep mine pumping, came to inspect Brindley’s installations and garner ideas, although cognisant of the patent protecting what they saw. In a fiercely competitive age a great deal of effort was invested in discovering the advances of others. However, his careers in mills, steam, and canals were not mutually exclusive and he continued to have commercial interests in all three spheres.","PeriodicalId":232627,"journal":{"name":"Transactions of the Newcomen Society","volume":"54 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2006-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126004969","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2006-08-01DOI: 10.1179/037201806X119804
Colin Divall
{"title":"From Waggonway to Bullet Train: Railway Engineering through the Millennium","authors":"Colin Divall","doi":"10.1179/037201806X119804","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1179/037201806X119804","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":232627,"journal":{"name":"Transactions of the Newcomen Society","volume":"76 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2006-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129746048","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2006-08-01DOI: 10.1179/037201806X119868
D. Yeomans
There are questions in the history of technology that cannot be addressed by the methods used in other branches of history. All history draws upon documentary evidence, which in the history of technology or architecture includes drawings as well as written sources, but in both of these subjects historians also have recourse to the techniques of the archaeologist, i.e. the examination of surviving artefacts. However there are questions concerning aspects of technology that cannot be answered even with this expanded range of evidence. Such questions vary depending upon the particular branch of technology, but commonly concern the methods of construction or the operating characteristics of an artefact. A common feature of many of these issues is that they involve facts that might not have been recorded at the time but which were either significant to the development or use of some artefact or have affected the general development of that branch of technology. It is in these circumstances that some form of reconstruction can provide useful data. The general question thus raised is the form that such reconstructions should take in order correctly to address the questions at hand. While much has been written on the use and interpretation of documentary sources, little has been written on the use of reconstructions. The essential points to address are: the definition of a reconstruction, their purpose and the forms that they take, the sources of evidence and the interpretation of the data they provide.
{"title":"Reconstructions as an Aid to History","authors":"D. Yeomans","doi":"10.1179/037201806X119868","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1179/037201806X119868","url":null,"abstract":"There are questions in the history of technology that cannot be addressed by the methods used in other branches of history. All history draws upon documentary evidence, which in the history of technology or architecture includes drawings as well as written sources, but in both of these subjects historians also have recourse to the techniques of the archaeologist, i.e. the examination of surviving artefacts. However there are questions concerning aspects of technology that cannot be answered even with this expanded range of evidence. Such questions vary depending upon the particular branch of technology, but commonly concern the methods of construction or the operating characteristics of an artefact. A common feature of many of these issues is that they involve facts that might not have been recorded at the time but which were either significant to the development or use of some artefact or have affected the general development of that branch of technology. It is in these circumstances that some form of reconstruction can provide useful data. The general question thus raised is the form that such reconstructions should take in order correctly to address the questions at hand. While much has been written on the use and interpretation of documentary sources, little has been written on the use of reconstructions. The essential points to address are: the definition of a reconstruction, their purpose and the forms that they take, the sources of evidence and the interpretation of the data they provide.","PeriodicalId":232627,"journal":{"name":"Transactions of the Newcomen Society","volume":"86 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2006-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128579072","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2006-08-01DOI: 10.1179/037201806X119822
R. Burns
Approximately 80 years ago, on 26 January 1926, John Logie Baird demonstrated rudimentary television to about 40 members of the Royal Institution. Baird used a variant of a device known as a Nipkow scanner and was able to show a crude televised image of the head of a ventriloquist’s doll; the scanning parameters were probably 32 lines per picture and 12.5 pictures per second. When, on 30 September 1929, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reluctantly transmitted its first experimental television broadcast, the picture definition was based on 30 lines per picture, the scanning rate remaining unchanged at 12.5 images per second. These characteristics were chosen so that the low definition television broadcasts could be transmitted, using a carrier frequency in the medium waveband, to a potentially large number of viewers. Only ‘head and shoulders’ images could be transmitted and essentially the BBC was not interested in participating in the advancement of a television system which could not reproduce images of, say, a cricket Test Match at Lords or tennis at Wimbledon. The BBC felt that low definition television was inappropriate to its services; there had to be a move towards a higher definition standard. Following Baird’s 1926 success, many inventors and companies in the USA, France, Germany and elsewhere demonstrated low definition television. The most impressive demonstrations were those given by the well-endowed Bell Telephone Laboratories (BTL) in April 1927. Subsequently, Dr. H. E. Ives, the director of television research at BTL, in an important paper written in 1931, highlighted the difficulties which faced television workers in the late 1920s. He wrote:
大约80年前，1926年1月26日，John Logie Baird向大约40名皇家学会成员展示了基本的电视。贝尔德使用了一种被称为尼普科夫扫描仪的设备的变体，能够显示一个腹语表演者的娃娃头部的粗糙电视图像;扫描参数大概是每张图片32行，每秒12.5张图片。1929年9月30日，英国广播公司(BBC)不情愿地进行了第一次实验性电视广播，当时的图像清晰度是基于每张图像30行，扫描速率保持在每秒12.5张图像不变。选择这些特性是为了使低清晰度电视广播能够使用中波带中的载波频率传输给潜在的大量观众。只有“头部和肩部”的图像可以传输，本质上，英国广播公司对参与电视系统的发展不感兴趣，因为电视系统不能再现，比如说，在洛德的板球测试赛或在温布尔登的网球比赛的图像。英国广播公司认为低清晰度电视不适合其服务;必须向更高的清晰度标准迈进。继贝尔德1926年的成功之后，美国、法国、德国和其他地方的许多发明家和公司都展示了低清晰度电视。最令人印象深刻的演示是1927年4月由财力雄厚的贝尔电话实验室(BTL)进行的。随后，BTL电视研究主任H. E. Ives博士在1931年撰写的一篇重要论文中强调了20世纪20年代末电视工作者所面临的困难。他写道:
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Pub Date : 2006-08-01DOI: 10.1179/037201806X119813
G. Cookson
{"title":"Submarine Cables: Novelty and Innovation, 1850–1870","authors":"G. Cookson","doi":"10.1179/037201806X119813","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1179/037201806X119813","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":232627,"journal":{"name":"Transactions of the Newcomen Society","volume":"17 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2006-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121047361","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2006-08-01DOI: 10.1179/037201806X119877
B. Lawton
He calculated that 6 or 8 men sailing in one ship between Leith and London could carry 100 tons of goods, and 50 broad-wheeled wagons, attended by 100 men and drawn by 400 horses could carry the same weight of goods. The typical coastal vessel of the 18th century carried about 100 tons of cargo whereas a typical broad-wheeled wagon was limited to a load of 2 tons, so Adam Smith’s figures seem reasonable, but his assumption of 8 horses per wagon may be overgenerous. Some 135 years earlier, in 1641, John Taylor, London’s water poet, had made almost the same calculation and come to the same conclusions. Taylor writes:
{"title":"Building the Wilts and Berks Canal, 1793–1810","authors":"B. Lawton","doi":"10.1179/037201806X119877","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1179/037201806X119877","url":null,"abstract":"He calculated that 6 or 8 men sailing in one ship between Leith and London could carry 100 tons of goods, and 50 broad-wheeled wagons, attended by 100 men and drawn by 400 horses could carry the same weight of goods. The typical coastal vessel of the 18th century carried about 100 tons of cargo whereas a typical broad-wheeled wagon was limited to a load of 2 tons, so Adam Smith’s figures seem reasonable, but his assumption of 8 horses per wagon may be overgenerous. Some 135 years earlier, in 1641, John Taylor, London’s water poet, had made almost the same calculation and come to the same conclusions. Taylor writes:","PeriodicalId":232627,"journal":{"name":"Transactions of the Newcomen Society","volume":"13 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2006-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121885900","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2006-08-01DOI: 10.1179/037201806X119796
R. Hills
During the nineteenth century the steam engine developed from the Watt beam engine producing, in most cases, less than 100 hp to the horizontal compound or multiple expansion engine producing 2,500 hp in some textile mills. Up to 1800, Boulton and Watt had built fewer than 500 reciprocating pumping engines and rotative engines of all types, with an estimated total horsepower of 7,500. In addition, there were many Newcomen atmospheric engines pumping water from coal mines. Soon after 1830 the steam engine (Figure 1) became the predominant source of industrial power of England and Wales, having outstripped the combined totals of horsepower in wind and watermills and Kanefsky estimated that, by 1907, total steam engine horsepower was 9,659,000. The rise of the steam engine to this pre-eminence was swift. The impact upon people was dramatic because they recognised that here was a reliable source of power, available virtually whenever and wherever it was needed. The windmills used for draining the Fens were called ‘Gentle Spectators’ because so often the wind failed when they were most needed to pump out the water and the farmers watched the flood waters rising across their lands. On the other hand, two plaques on steam engines erected for draining the Fens emphasised the reliability and power of steam. The earlier, of 1830, on the Hundred Foot engine of the Littleport and Downham District reads:
{"title":"The Importance of Steam Power during the Nineteenth Century","authors":"R. Hills","doi":"10.1179/037201806X119796","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1179/037201806X119796","url":null,"abstract":"During the nineteenth century the steam engine developed from the Watt beam engine producing, in most cases, less than 100 hp to the horizontal compound or multiple expansion engine producing 2,500 hp in some textile mills. Up to 1800, Boulton and Watt had built fewer than 500 reciprocating pumping engines and rotative engines of all types, with an estimated total horsepower of 7,500. In addition, there were many Newcomen atmospheric engines pumping water from coal mines. Soon after 1830 the steam engine (Figure 1) became the predominant source of industrial power of England and Wales, having outstripped the combined totals of horsepower in wind and watermills and Kanefsky estimated that, by 1907, total steam engine horsepower was 9,659,000. The rise of the steam engine to this pre-eminence was swift. The impact upon people was dramatic because they recognised that here was a reliable source of power, available virtually whenever and wherever it was needed. The windmills used for draining the Fens were called ‘Gentle Spectators’ because so often the wind failed when they were most needed to pump out the water and the farmers watched the flood waters rising across their lands. On the other hand, two plaques on steam engines erected for draining the Fens emphasised the reliability and power of steam. The earlier, of 1830, on the Hundred Foot engine of the Littleport and Downham District reads:","PeriodicalId":232627,"journal":{"name":"Transactions of the Newcomen Society","volume":"20 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2006-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121220811","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2006-08-01DOI: 10.1179/037201806x119886
{"title":"Notes on Contributors","authors":"","doi":"10.1179/037201806x119886","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1179/037201806x119886","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":232627,"journal":{"name":"Transactions of the Newcomen Society","volume":"19 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2006-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128830926","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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